I chose your post to start my response. Have been really taken aback by how harsh, contemptuous and just sarcastic (I'm sure the posters calling him marshmallow are 250 game, hardened AFL veterans) to the point that, if poor Kosi was to come on here (I sincerely hope never) he'd wonder why he bothered to come to play for this club.
I thought my eyes told me he played an honest game today - for what was his 2nd game for us, was it? I thought he contested in the air and on the ground although he's not sharp or fast when the ball hits the turf. When you are a one-out KPF, you are going to be double-teamed or blocked in a lot of contests. Did we notice that we lost our 2 KPFs but only brought in 1? It was hard-going for him today against Cordy, Battle and Wilkie. All handy big backmen (195/193/191cm). He was often grabbed and held while attempting to contest. That's why he received 3 free kicks (unusual for a Tigers KF but indicative of how much holding and grappling). They never get pinged for all of them so probably got away with double that.
Btoz posted his main stats above, but for all the savage criticism by so many on here, with only the occasional poster giving him any credit at all, if you just take AF ratings as a sweeping, generalized broad evaluation, do you realise his game was rated better than Miller, Pickett, McIntosh, Mansell, Dow and Lefau's? Just behind Sonsie? But is every one of these guys copping as much crap?
He had to play quite a bit in the ruck, winning 10 x HOs, only took 2Ms but had 77.8 DE% and 9 CPs, higher than everyone bar our best mids and Brown and Shai who had 10. When he was rucking, it was left to Lefau to try and contest against their 3 KPDs. Of course, he was out of his depth at this stage of his inexperience.
Don't think Kosii deserves all this contemptuous treatment. He had a go. I found the poor camera-work to go with the really low-quality venue made it hard to see if he was so often easily out-marked by the likes of Wilkie. I'd say he would have had help from his co-defenders to make it difficult for Kosi to make good position or get a genuine good run at the ball. But I've always rated Wilkie who often beats much more credentialled KFs. I think he's a master of the subtle shove-in-the-back too by the number of times he beats taller men.
This is why teams must have and play at least 2 KPFs: Hawkins/Cameron, Curnow/McKay etc.
We made a mistake not replacing 2 for 2 with Naismith (or even Ryan). Lefau struggled as 2nd KPF without Lynch and Balta.
I'm not surprised Yze has come out and said Kosi stays. In the circumstances, it was an honest effort. (But keeping Chol would have proved wise).
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